VetsParkMcDonald - Welcome Winter

description:

The first day of winter is Friday, December 21. Here in Western Massachusetts we are beginning to experience frost on the ground in the morning, icy weather, shorter days, and a little bit of snow here and there.

Due Date: Friday, December 21, 2012

Here are a few links about the first day of winter, also known as the Winter Solstice:

http://teacher.scholastic.com/scholasticnews/indepth/holidays/winter_solstice.asp

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/12/091218-winter-solstice-date-2010-solstices-first-day-winter/

Word Clouds:
“A word cloud is a graphical representation of word frequency. Type or paste text into the box below and press the arrow button to view the word cloud generated. The appearance of a word cloud can be altered using the graphical buttons above the cloud. It is also easy to save and/or print the cloud by simply pressing a button.” – ABCya definition

Directions:
For your wiki assignment this week you will create a word cloud that describes what you love about winter. Tell us what activities you enjoy, what about the weather you like, what you enjoy about winter that you can't enjoy during any other season, and any other thoughts or feelings you have about this incredibly unique season.

First, you will brainstorm in your writer's notebook. This will be completed in class.
Next, type your work as a Google Document. This does not have to be shared with Mrs. McDonald.
Revise and edit your draft, making the things that you love the most the most frequently written so that it will appear larger in your cloud.
Then, once you have reread your draft, you are ready to create your cloud.
Choose which web site you would like to use.
Then copy and paste your work into the generator.
Finally, save and post your cloud to the bottom of this page for your classmates to see.
You will need to edit this page and upload your cloud.
You can discuss what you love and notice about each other’s clouds using the discussion tab of this page.
Remember to use the scoring guide to receive your best score.

Scoring:
You will be scored on your ability to follow directions and complete the assignment by the due date. This means your score will depend on your ability to tell:

What activities you enjoy
What about the weather you like
What you enjoy about winter that you can't enjoy during any other season
Includes any other thoughts or feelings you have about this incredibly unique season.
Complete the assignment on time

Sites To Use: (click the link to go to the site)

http://www.tagxedo.com/ “Tagxedo turns words -- famous speeches, news articles, slogans and themes, even your love letters -- into a visually stunning word cloud, words individually sized appropriately to highlight the frequencies of occurrence within the body of text.” – from the site
http://www.wordle.net/ “Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like.” – from the site
http://www.abcya.com/word_clouds.htm “ABCya.com word clouds for kids! A word cloud is a graphical representation of word frequency. Type or paste text into the box below and press the arrow button to view the word cloud generated. The appearance of a word cloud can be altered using the graphical buttons above the cloud. It is also easy to save and/or print the cloud by simply pressing a button.” –from the site

Saving Your Cloud: